The invention relates to a metal grill suitable for a cooking apparatus, such as a microwave oven or a gas oven, with a heater mounted on at one face of a series of thin metal rods of the metal grill.
Generally, cooking apparatus available today have an oven function as well as a grill function in a single unit such that the user chooses the function desired. One example of a conventional cooking apparatus has a structure with an electrically energized heater for emitting heat and being mounted at the top of a compartment. In a separate structure from the above heater, a plurality of metal grills are used, with each grill having a plurality of rods for placing thereon food to be cooked. The food is cooked by the heat of the heater. However, since the one heater is fixedly mounted in the top of the compartment, there is a problem in that the heat cannot reach the food placed in the bottom of the compartment, resulting in insufficient heat distribution for cooking the food. Further because the metal grills are located on different rails, i.e., the grills being spaced apart, the heat from the heater fails to evenly reach all the food on each metal grill, thereby decreasing the heating efficiency of the apparatus for cooking food.
Therefrom, in order to overcome the above problems, a couple of heaters are fixedly mounted in the top and bottom of the compartment, respectively. Furthermore, a fan is installed in one wall of the compartment with a heater surrounding the fan. By forcibly circulating the heat generated by the heater by the fan, the efficiency of the cooking apparatus is greatly increased. Generally, the skin of the food being grilled may be seared so as to prevent a large amount of moisture from escaping from the inside of the food. This action requires directly heating the food.
However, in the above conventional cooking apparatus, there is a problem in that the grilling effect cannot be easily used due to an excessive increase in the temperature of the compartment. That is, the in a high efficiency oven the heat is given to the food evenly and slowly rather than quickly to the food outer surface as required for grilling. And it is difficult to produce the grill effect whilst the conventional cooker performs the cooking process quickly. Further, there is a problem in that the working volume of the compartment is decreased due to the heaters being fixedly installed in the top and the bottom of the compartment. Also, because of the positioning of the heaters, it is difficult and inconvenient to clean the compartment. In addition, since the cooker is constructed with a fan, the heat is applied indirectly to the food, causing an oven (i.e., baking) function rather than a grill function.